


A Commonwealth of Joy

by Peapods



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-04
Updated: 2013-12-04
Packaged: 2018-01-03 10:30:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peapods/pseuds/Peapods
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Land Without Magic has its own enchantments. Ergo, road trip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Commonwealth of Joy

It’s April when they hit D.C.. Emma stands beneath an avenue of cherry blossoms and stares up into the bright pink display. It’s quiet and not precisely warm, but it hardly matters when the blaze of the sun can penetrate the riot of blooms above.

****

A little voice, cracking and growing deeper every day, is talking about having nothing to fear but fear itself and asking not what your country could do for you, but what you could for your country. It makes her smile.

****

This is her world.

****

A soft, accented voice asks about the last full measure of devotion and Emma is smiling without knowing why.

****

D.C is beautiful in the spring.

  


*****

“Oy! Lad! Careful there!” Killian calls, even though Henry is far less handicapped and far more nimble than either of them.

****

“It’s not that hard!” Henry sasses, as he scrambles over the rocks and up the trail.

****

Emma laughs at Killian’s disgruntled look. Cotton and cargo pants suit him far more than is necessary, but that look is all pirate.

****

They reach their destination and even Hook, of fairy-tale and magic land, is taken aback at the vista. The steam that so many mistook for smoke had dissipated leaving them an unimpeded, unbelievable picture to consume.

****

Killian’s arms wrap around her middle and she lets herself lean.

  


*****

“Surely we must turn somewhere!” Killian asks, fighting with the gear box as they peel out of the roadside gas station. “This road is unenduringly straight!”

 

“It’s so they can land a plane!” Henry says, fiddling with his iPod and the ancient tape deck until he can blast his own music out of the tinny speakers.

****

“That makes no bloody sense,” Killian gripes, turning back onto another long, straight bit of road.

****

Emma smiles and snuggles down into the mass of blankets and pillows that have been Henry’s nest for most of the trip.

  


*****

He is holding her hand, unused to the grandeur of the music. The theater looks like something from the Enchanted Forest, but the insistent pound of the music, the rise and swell of it, is pure Land Without Magic.

****

Killian had told her that the music from their homeland more resembled the renaissance and new age crap Mary-Margaret liked when she didn’t want to beat the shit out of a punching bag.

****

An entire symphony, the rock band fronting it, this is more than he had ever seen.

****

She watches his face more than she watches the musicians. His face is far more entertaining and a better gauge of their prowess. He turns to look at her and she smiles. He grins and drops his forehead to hers, sighing.

****

“Thank you,” he whispers.

****

“Always,” she says.

  


**Author's Note:**

> Photos were found on Google. DC Cherry Blossom Festival, the Smoky Mountains in TN, some road in Nevada (maybe), and the Palace Theatre in Louisville, KY.
> 
> Title from Wendell Berry's "The Country of Marriage."


End file.
